I am breastfeeding my 17 month old daughter and she has weaned herself from all daytime feedings but not the nighttime comfort feedings. I was on the prescription drug Reglan to help with milk production but stopped taking it because it makes me produce too much for just nighttime feedings. So needless to say I am hardly producing anything at all and with my daughter waking up 3-4 times a night to breastfeed my nipples are paying a painful price. I need to know the best way to wean her off these comfort feedings completely. I know she isn't hungry and she doesn't need the nutrition from my milk so I'm ok with being finished with breastfeeding. I also plan on expanding my family more and would like to be done breastfeeding altogether before I get pregnant. Not to mention I work full time in the military so I need those precious hours of sleep I'm losing every night. Please help if you're able!! Thank you.
So we are stopping cold turkey:) So far things aren't going as badly as I thoughtt they were going to go. Last night she slept all the way through the night and the night before that she woke up once and I rocked her back to sleep without nursing her. It was awesome getting a full nights sleep without any interruptions:) Thank you to all the moms who gave me suggestions:) You have no idea how much I appreciate it!!!
When I wanted to wean my daughter of her nighttime feedings, I would go in and comfort her, say "Mommy doesn't have any milk." and give her a sippy cup of water. She'd take it and the first few nights she drank some of it, but then she started pushing it away when I'd hand it to her and then within a week, she'd stopped waking up all together.
I hope you find something that works for you.
Will she take a pacifier? Maybe try giving her one in the middle of the night instead of nursing. The bottle (or sippy cup) of water is also a very good idea. Other than that, I don't know. I've been blessed with pretty good early sleepers. Good luck!
Here is a great resource for night weaning:
http://www.kellymom.com/bf/weaning/weaning-night.html
First of all, congratulations for nursing your baby for 17 months! If you were feeding on demand during the day, I would definitely say no feeding during the night. So, that makes this a little more of a challenge. I spent six years of my adult life nursing my four sons. What worked for us when I wanted to wean was to send daddy in to the baby to give him a warm bottle of water (no sugar). My pediatrician suggested that to us because he said if a person gets nutrition in the middle of the night, they will continue to wake up at that time and want to eat. Adults will do this, too. However, if you give them water, it can be filling and satisfying while not providing nutrition. It also gives daddy the chance to solve a problem and be involved. It may mean your baby may have to cry for three nights and you will suffer, too during this time but, check on your baby to make sure she is okay (from afar if possible) and if she is safe allow her to cry it out. Something to consider: If you work full-time, this may be her way of getting mama time uninterrupted. Just remember: she won't do this when she is sixteen so you might opt to just enjoy it while you can ....
Do not let her nurse out of comfort, she will not ever learn to sleep all night herself. If you want to wean, do it cold turkey which will be tough but not take that long. If you want to continue to nurse, then keep it just during the day.
After the year mark, kids nurse at night and use you as a human pacifier. Not only is that hard on you but them as well as they aren't learning to fall back to sleep on their own. Just go cold turkey, go in and rub her back, tuck her in, put on her music box but do not nurse. I would have your husband if you can do it as she can smell breast milk still on you and that makes it harder. Give it a few nights and she will learn to go back to sleep. Letting her cry for a few minutes at her age won't hurt anything either. HUGS!
I had a friend that just took and 3 day trip without her daughter. It worked well for them. Her daughter had no interest in weaning, but was fine when mommy left and returned. It went more smoothly than any of the other things they had tried. Her daughter was close to your daughter's age.
My son was 16 months old when I weaned him, and he was waking 2-3 times a night to nurse. I wanted to be done nursing, so I slowly eliminated one feeding at a time, over a period of about 10 days, taking a few days between each time I took a feeding away, so he could adjust. I don't know how you feel about the crying it out thing, but that's what I did. When my son woke up wanting to nurse, I would go to him and comfort him, tell him I was there, but I didn't pick him up. The first night was the worst, but after that, he did better. After I eliminated the last feeding, he started sleeping mostly through the night--he went through several months where he would still wake around 4 in the morning, but if I just gave him a quick hug, he went right back to sleep. He still isn't the best sleeper, and he gets up for the day at 6 am (that's the worst!), but at least the nursing is finished.
I totally get where you are coming from!!! My daughter is almost 16 months and doesn't really sleep through the night and is still nursing in the morning and night and sometimes before her nap. I try to let her cry it out when she wakes up at night, but there are nights I don't have the heart or energy to let her scream until she puts herself back to sleep when I can let her latch on for less than 5 minutes and then we can both get some sleep:) I don't really have any advice because obviously we are in the same boat, but it is nice to know that someone else is going through this at the same time as I am.
Our biggest problem is that she never took a binky or a bottle and will not drink anything out of a sippy except water. I worry about her not getting enough calcium so I must admit I have not been overly excited about weaning her fully. I want her to be as healthy as possible and I guess this is the only way for now:) Good luck and let me know if you find anything that works for you.
I don't know if this will help, but I nursed both of my children until they were 12 months old. I had them weaned not long after their 1st birthdays. I weaned them at night by giving them a sippy cup of water every time they woke up. This quenched their thirst and they learned that they couldn't nurse any longer. It only took my husband and I about 3 nights to have them broke of nursing. They only down side is that now they have to have a sippy cup of water by their bed before they go to sleep, so if they wake up thirsty they can get a drink. I find that a minor price to pay. My kids are only 17 months apart so by the time the oldest was done nursing I was already pregnant with the second, so I was in need of a rest from nursing. I hope this will help.
